[MarketPress eCommerce] Two versions installed at the same time

I recently installed MarketPress and got that setup, then I installed CoursePress, which I think has it's own version of MP. The result was two installations of MP in the same site. I deleted one, hoped I deleted the right one, which I think was an older version.

I might not have my facts right there. It's possible that I had set CP or MP as a Favorite with WP.org. So in a recent attempt to fast-track installation of my favorite plugins I went clicking through the WP.org plugins to install. I think it was about this time that I noticed that I had two versions of MP, one of them being old, which I deleted.

Anything ringing a bell for anyone?

The take away here is :
1) Where MarketPress is bundled with another WPMU DEV plugin, please ensure it's the current version.
2a) Since there are two versions available from "somewhere", I'm hoping both versions can be enhanced to test for an installed version of "the other one".
2b) Or ... If indeed CoursePress requires a specific version of MarketPress, will that older MP play well with the current MP? Is it customized for use with CP ... and maybe I shouldn't have removed that older version?
3) Can someone create documentation that explains exactly how the software is configured and how we should use it?

coursepress doesn't have a separate version of marketpress. It installs the saMe version that you get by downloading or installing use dashboard plugin or from our site.

Yes and no. You're confirming that CP installs a version of MarketPress. I'm saying the version that I got a couple days ago was older than the version we get direct from the company.

As an experiment, since I uninstalled the version from WP.org, I just went to Plugins>Add New, and re-installed MP from WP.org. The result is two installations of MarketPress with, now, the same version.

So at least this time it's the same version in there twice, not different versions. But there are indeed two plugins there with the same Display name ... because the folder names are different...

I decided to look further, uninstalled CoursePress then re-installed. (lost existing course, oh well, export next time). On re-installing CP, MP wasn't there, as expected. I installed MP as an extension, and it said it's installing from WPMU DEV.

The CP installs MV, yes both at the current v3.2.8. But looking at the folders marketpress and wordpress-ecommerce, there are differences.

BTW, it's not just MarketPress. Hummingbird from WP.org installs to a different folder than Hummingbird Pro. I don't consider this one to be an error, just another FYI.
It makes sense that Hummingbird Pro is a different package from the non-Pro version. And it makes sense that the recent package from WP.org is version 1.9.2 while the fresh-n-hot version from WPMU DEV is 1.9.3 and just hasn't been pushed out to WP.org yet. This problem didn't happen before the plugins were offered in the WP.org repo, and most plugins don't have two sources like this, so I understand all of this is new.

What I suggest is that maybe Automate can be enhanced to detect when pro and non-pro software are both loaded. Or, whether pro or not, that a site has the same WPMU DEV package from both WPMU DEV and from WP.org. Yes, they're supposed to be the same, but obviously not.

Another idea, probably better - hook the plugin installation and do the check there. Disable WP.org plugins (so that they can't get installed) that have already been installed from WPMU DEV. And in the WPMU DEV site dashboard, warn if there is already a non-pro installation.

What I'm concerned about is things like: What happens to data if someone deactivates and deletes a non-Pro version before OR after they activate the pro version? That probably depends on the plugin.

Yes, the best solution is "don't do that", don't install two versions of the same software. There's something to be said for this. But if the software is supposedly the same then there shouldn't be any problems. That's the flag I'm trying to raise.

I could replicate the behaviour you are noticing with free version of MarketPress getting installed, however this seems to only occur when free version of CoursePress is installed, and seems like WPMU DEV Dashboard isn't able to differentiate this, and hence the MarketPress free version is getting installed, even when the WPMU DEV Dashboard is activated.

However, I'm not able to replicate this when CoursePress Pro is installed via WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin, it seems to redirect to install MarketPress via the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin.

Since there isn't any difference in feature between free, and Pro version of CoursePress, and MarketPress, this can confuse some users who perform such updates. I'm marking this as an issue, and bringing into the developers attention, so this could be corrected in future release.

I do understand what you meant in general with folder structures, one of the reasons with naming was, we had instances when WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin was disabled, and if the free version had a high version number then the Pro Versions, the WordPress dashboard would prompt for an update, hence giving the impression of losing the Pro features, and only seeing features of free versions, once the plugin was updated.

To avoid such incidents, we have been considering having different folder names, for free and pro versions, as they are different packages for some case.

Yes, this would mean, you would notice two versions installed as shown in your screenshot for Hummingbird. However, having a WPMU DEV membership, would mean the intention is to update the plugin to Pro features, so the normal workflow for example in Hummingbird, would be to delete the free version, and install the Pro via the WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin.

I do appreciate your feedback regarding this, and will share your observations with our team so that we could consider what more improvements could be done on the update structures.

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